As the iMac garnered kudos, Bill Gates assured a gathering of financial analysts visiting Microsoft that this would be a passing fad. iMac屡获殊荣之际，比尔·盖茨明确的告诉一群拜访微软公司的财务分析师们，这只是一时的潮流而已。

　　"The one thing Apple's providing now is leadership in colors," “苹果公司现在唯一胜出的就是在颜色方面。”

　　Gates said as he pointed to a Windows- based PC that he jokingly had painted red. 盖茨指了指一台他故意漆成红色的Windows计算机，

　　"It won't take long for us to catch up with that, I don't think." “我们不用花太多时间就能做到，我认为不会很久。”

　　Jobs was furious, and he told a reporter that Gates, 乔布斯气坏了。他告诉一个记者说，盖茨，

　　the man he had publicly decried for being completely devoid of taste, 这个曾被他公开嘲笑“完全没有品位”的人，

　　was clueless about what made the iMac so much more appealing than other computers. 根本没搞清楚是什么让iMac比其他计算机更有吸引力。

　　"The thing that our competitors are missing is that they think it's about fashion, “我们的竞争对手大错特错的地方就在于，他们认为这只是时尚，

　　and they think it's about surface appearance," he said. 只是表面功夫而已。”他说，

　　"They say, We'll slap a little color on this piece of junk computer, and we'll have one, too." “他们会说，‘我们也要在这破机器上喷点儿漆，不就是这么回事儿吗。’”

　　The iMac went on sale in August 1998 for $1,299. 1998年8月，iMac正式发售，售价1299美元。

　　It sold 278,000 units in its first six weeks, and would sell 800,000 by the end of the year, 上市6个星期后就售出27.8万台，到年底售出了80万台，

　　making it the fastest-selling computer in Apple history. 成为苹果公司历史上销售速度最快的计算机。

　　Most notably, 32% of the sales went to people who were buying a computer for the first time, 最值得注意的是，32%的购买者是首次购买计算机，

　　and another 12% to people who had been using Windows machines. 12%的购买者曾经使用的是Windows计算机。